Due to the advancements in technology over the past several decades, the amount of multimedia information available to the average consumer has grown substantially. For example, with respect to musical information, improvements in radio broadcasting and audio electronics have enabled users to listen to a wide variety of radio programming while they are sitting in their homes, driving in their automobiles, relaxing at the beach, or exercising. Also, with the creation and expansion of “music television” channels in the past couple of decades, music information is readily conveyed to television viewers in the form of “music videos”.
As a result of such widespread dissemination of music information, the purchasing of reproducible music media (e.g. music records, cassettes, and compact disks (“CDs”)) has become impulsive. In a typical scenario, a user listens to the radio and hears a particular song that appeals to him or her. Then, the user impulsively purchases a CD containing the particular song or containing a song that is similar to the particular song. In addition to becoming impulsive, the purchasing of reproducible music media has also become sociable. Specifically, frequent topics of discussion among a user and his or her friends are the newest songs that are being broadcast on the radio. After discussing such songs, the user often decides to purchase a CD containing one or more of the songs.
In most cases, when a user wants to purchase a CD or other type of music media, he or she must physically go to a music media store to buy the music media. The vast majority of music media stores are owned by large record companies or large distribution companies, and other music media stores are smaller, family-owned music shops. However, travelling to a store to buy a CD (or other music media) requires a substantial amount of time and is inconvenient for the user. Thus, since many CD purchases are impulsive, the desire to buy a particular CD often wanes before the user can find the time to travel to a music store to buy the CD. As a result, many CDs that users initially desire to purchase are never bought, and thus, many potential CDs sales are lost.
In addition, a user typically cannot listen to the contents of the entire CD before purchasing the CD, and in many cases, the user does not like the majority of the songs on the CD after he or she has bought the CD and listened to it. In such a case, the user must travel to the store for a second time to return the CD for a refund, and the multiple trips to the music store add to inconvenience of the user. Furthermore, to prevent unscrupulous users from purchasing music media, illegally copying the music media via a recording device, and returning the original music media for a refund, many stores do not allow users to return music media once the packaging of the music media has been opened. Thus, if a user cannot listen to a CD before purchasing it and does not like the majority of the songs on the CD after buying the CD, the user cannot return the CD. In such a scenario, the user has spent money to buy a CD that he or she does not like and cannot return for a refund. Such a practice further discourages users from buying CDs from a music store.
Recently, the Internet has created new channels for distributing multimedia. For example, Internet applications (e.g. on-line music stores) have been developed that enable a user to purchase music media via his or her computer. One example of such an Internet application is the CDNow application. Such application enables a user to login to the website and search for a particular CD. When the user finds the particular CD, the CDNow application enables the user to listen to a sample from the music tracks of the CD in real time. In addition, if the user submits the appropriate credit card information, the CDNow application enables the user to purchase the CD and (1) download MP3 data containing the tracks of the CD or (2) have the CD mailed to an address designated by the user. Furthermore, the CDNow application enables a user to select his or her favorite musical tracks from different CDs and combine them to create a personalized CD. Then, the user can submit the appropriate credit card information to download the MP3 data containing the tracks of the personalized CDs.
As noted above, purchasing CDs via on-line music stores is more convenient than purchasing CDs via conventional music stores. However, purchasing CDs via on-line music stores still have many disadvantages. For example, the on-line stores are totally inaccessible to users who do not know how to use a personal computer and to users who do not have access to a personal computer. Since many music media purchases are impulsive and the desire to impulsively purchase music media diminishes relatively quickly, many users lose interest in buying a particular CD before they are able to access an on-line store or learn how to access an on-line store. In addition, since the on-line music stores require a credit card to purchase a CD, many users who do not have a credit card (e.g. children and some young adults) cannot utilize the on-line stores to make the purchase. As a result, many potential CD sales via the on-line stores never materialize.
Another problem with on-line stores is that the Internet is unstable, unreliable, and prone to delays. For example, a user often cannot access an on-line store because a high volume of data traffic exists on the Internet or because the Internet connection between the server running the on-line store and the user's personal computer is faulty. Furthermore, even after the user successfully accesses the on-line store, the user often cannot listen to high quality samples of music tracks because the data traffic on the Internet is high and/or because the connection is unstable. Thus, many users trying to access and/or purchase music from an on-line store become frustrated, the impulsive purchasing behavior of the users becomes crippled, and potential sales of many CDs are lost.
Also, although on-line music stores are generally more convenient than conventional music stores and initially increase the sales of CDs, such stores may actually detract from the sale of CDs over time. Specifically, users typically pay a fee (via a credit card) to the on-line store to download music data for a particular CD. Such music data represents a high quality rendition of the tracks on the CD, and once the data is downloaded, the user can easily make multiple copies of the data and redistribute the data. Thus, after an initial user purchases the music data, he or she can distribute the data to many other users. As a result, the other users, who would otherwise purchase the particular CD, do not buy the CD because they have already received the data from the initial user.